Denglish

1 hour ago, Alex3344 said:

Hey Denglish,

 

How did your interview go?  

Thank you for asking - it went well and we were approved! Case status online says case approved and card in production. 

I will say it was absolutely nerve wrecking for me. We went in rather confident because our case is pretty clear cut. But then the USCIS worker started asking a lot of questions about my husbands German police record (two small misdemeanors from a while back). After the interview we waited another 20 minutes in the waiting room. The whole time I kept saying over and over “I’m so scared”. 

Later he came out, called us to the hallway and gave us a paper saying it was approved. I just about melted. The whole process took about two hours. Most of it waiting. Status online updated to card production the next day. 

I tell you, this whole immigration process has been BRUTAL! But thankfully we’re all getting closer to being done (at least for two years 😉).

So crazy that everyone doesn’t have their EAD yet! Hopefully this month you will just get an interview notice (happened to some people in July too, no EAD or it came rediculkusly close to interview time). For my own case I notice that the whole thing overall is right on target in terms of timeline. We have our interview this Friday, almost exactly 6 months after applying, which is exactly what I expected. The only unexpected and absolutely agonizing part was waiting for that EAD card which we expected within 90 days of filing. 

So so I hope you all will get interview notices soon and not have to worry about EAD. 

22 hours ago, Louv said:

Hey guys I finally got an answer to my 2nd SR.. Says "case is under review and should receive decision or notice of other action shortly".. Should I get my hopes up or is it a generic answer...

Shortly is good! When I got that exact note I got the EAD a couple of weeks later. 

It’s absolutely maddening that all of the August filers haven’t gotten their EAD yet and that you can’t get any kind of useful information out of them. But maybe the silver lining is that since the EAD process took so long the rest of the AOS process will kind of fly by. I just got a text that my husband’s interview has been scheduled for Feb. 23. It’s actually right on target for total processing time. I assumed it would be 6 months (of course I also assumed he’d have the EAD in three months....). Can’t wait to be done with USCIS for a while...

5 hours ago, Hamilton said:

Early August filer, still absolutely no news!

 

 

Have you found out from what date yours is being reviewed? I was told by an officer that they have 30 days from when it is under review. I was told that mine went under review Dec. 14 and at just about 30 days I get news. Someone in the July filers group posted that their under review date was Dec. 12 and they got theirs just a few days before me. 

Not that there’s anything you can actually DO but at least you know about how much longer you’ll be waiting. 

26 minutes ago, Hamilton said:

Denglish, did you hear anything about your expedited EAD? Were you asked to submit more evidence before it was marked as completed?

After the initial evidence we sent in, they never asked for anything else. The only response we got was after the congresspersons office contacted them. After that it was assigned and completed. But there has been no answer since then and we have heard different information from different people over the phone. We are going to wait until mid next week and then call them again. I feel like there’s really nothing I can do to help it along....

9 hours ago, Hamilton said:

Who else is still waiting for combo cards or for their 485 to reach the "ready to be scheduled for interview" stage?

Me....😢 No combo card, no ready to be scheduled. 

12 hours ago, Louv said:

 Nothing here either. SR no response.. I am late august filer so 126 days for far... Question: when you write to congressman do you need to have a written job offer to expedite? 

If you are expediting based on a job offer, which falls in the financial need category, then yes, you need a written job offer. For any expedite request they will ask for evidence to support the case. 

Wow, great to see the progress in the group!! Congrats to everyone who got good news this week!

Just now, agnsd said:

I just got my ead advanced parole combo card today in the mail hope you all have a smoother process than mine on this part

That’s great - Congrats!!! Much deserved!! 

2 hours ago, PR&PR said:

They also say that it shouldn't take more than 90 days...So keep pushing, this isn't normal and they should hire more people if they are backed to a point they cannot respect their own timeline, especially given that people after August filers have received their stuff. We all know that their online date is pretty much bs.

That’s what I don’t understand, if they are so backlogged wouldn’t it be slow for everyone? If they are going in the order received. But they are FLY-ING through October! I wonder how case assignment works there. It seems like batches of cases get handed out to different groups of officers who work on those cases and then get assigned a new batch when done. 

So if case officer group A had a particularly high number of cases in their first batch, it would slow them down in that batch and the second batch. But if case officer group B had a standard first batch, it would allow them to continue processing at the standard rate through their subsequent batches.

I don’t know, just trying to rationalize the processing time difference between July/August and October 🤯🙃

1 hour ago, borodine01 said:

Just giving you all an update on my case. So it been 139 days and still nothing, did two SR, they were never assigned. I contacted my senator, left multiple message and so far have not received a call back. I have no idea what else to do!!!

So frustrating not knowing what’s going on and being powerless to do anything about it. But hopefully the Senators office will get back to you after New Years, they are probably on holiday. I learned that the person assigned to my case at the congressman’s didn’t work on Mondays or Tuesdays so that really delayed their response time and also time contacting USCIS....there’s not much we can do but keep pushing along. Hopefully you get something really soon! 

18 minutes ago, Hamilton said:

Hoping you meant mid-Jan and not mid-July!

 

I really think my case has just gotten lost or something.

I definitely meant mid-January - lol  Yours isn't lost, they are just really really behind and quite slow. I forget, did you get your congressperson involved?  I'm not sure if it has helped in any way, but I did notice movement on my case the day after the office contacted them. Like nothing was happening, no responses to SR or expedite, but then once the congress person contacted them it's then moved to "being reviewed".  But then again, I'm still waiting so...

Update:

Today we got notes on the I765 expedite that said it was assigned to an officer, a response was sent and the case was closed.  However, there was no change in the case status so we decided to call - last time we got a "response sent" update from an SR, a T2 officer was able to read the letter to us. Didn't happen this time, in fact, he claimed no letter existed and that this was just some standard procedure in the app.  Then he essentially said that the expedite would not be processed and was basically canceled because our EAD was under review since Dec. 14.  According to him if it's already under review, it's further along in the process than the expedite so it canceled out the expedite.  He said they only have 30 days to finish it once it's in review, so that means we will hear from them mid July in regards to the EAD.  

So an interesting little bit of info about how the process works, and we will wait patiently for another two weeks....

Best wishes to everyone...I would think we're ALL under review by now if we haven't gotten it yet.  So just hold on tight folks. 

::sigh:: still nothing from USCIS other than a generic message that a decision on the expedite will be made “shortly”....it’s already been about 3 weeks. But apparently they have 30 days to decide on expedite, even though they tell you they’ll take just 5 days. They gave the same response to the congressman too. So there’s really nothing we can do but wait. It’s so disheartenening.  No EAD, no interview, nothing. I wish we could understand what was going on. Just to know where it is in the process, are they doing extended background checks, is it waiting in a line to be looked at, what’s actually happening? 

We we were hoping to get the EAD before we moved (still in same city) but hopefully we don’t have any delays in getting the mail to the new address. 

BUT we are trying our hardest to stay positive. Excited about being able to enjoy the holidays in our new place. And looking forward to all of the good news that the New Year will bring!

56 minutes ago, GoodVibesOnly said:

At least you got a timeframe. And it is progress, someone is making clicks. 

 

The email I received said this "The status of this service request is: Your case is currently under review. You should receive a decision or notice of other action shortly."

 

"shortly" and no news until now 

Well add me to the list of people expecting news "shortly" - Just talked to a T2 officer who read my expedite request response letters to me. The letters say they tried to contact us by phone (not a single missed call here!) and that we would get a response shortly. It's like at this point I don't even need them to expedite it, I just need them to process it within a reasonable timeframe!

Trying to stay positive but it is hard...

Also, if my expedite request was completed on 11/30 then why just today (which also happens to be the day after my congressman's office contacted them) are they sending this letter saying they tried to call me and that a decision will be made shortly???? grrrrrrr

Not sure what to make of our latest case updates:

- 11/30 expedite request was completed

- 12/14 service request and general inquiry were both assigned to an officer (these were broken up on separate entries online)

- 12/14 response to service request and general inquiry were both sent (these were broken up on separate entries online)

- 12/14 service request and general inquiry were both completed (these were broken up on separate entries online)

I didn't even notice that the expedite was completed on 11/30 but I haven't heard any news either way.  Curious as to what these responses to my service request and general inquiry are (i only filed an SR, not sure what general inquiry is, maybe from the congressman?).  I wish the responses would just show on the online system.

Has anyone had this happen?  Did good news follow?

23 hours ago, Aviinashh said:

ok guys...this is strange...i just saw this status

 

12/12/2017

On December 12, 2017, your request to have your case expedited, referral number T1BXXXXXXXXXMSC, was assigned to an officer for response.

 

 

I did not call USCIS or even used my phone or laptop today as i was not feeling well and now while replying in the group i checked the status and it was in today's date !!!! I mean I already expedited my case in November and i already got an email from USCIS and i already faxed my offer letter now what the hell is this !!!

This seems like very good news! It’s progress - buttons are being pressed lol. Hope you feel better - hang in there!! 

1 hour ago, Tabbbbby said:

So did you open SR? I opened mine on Monday and it's still not been assigned to an officer. 

My SR was never assigned to an officer...like they just decided it wasn’t important, despite being well past processing time

Interesting news for me today:

The caseworker at my congresspersons office was out today so I decided to call USCIS direct. I was ready to ask for T2 T2!!! but the guy I spoke with was really great. He told me that there was already a letter that had been generated in regards to my husbands EAD but that it hadn’t been sent yet. He said a lot of times the letters are generated and then they sit waiting to be sent out because there’s a bunch of back log. He said they’ve had 2-3x the normal work. 

He he said he would send a reminder to the USCIS caseworker to send out the letter. Then as he was doing something he said “oh, actually it looks like your case is almost done - you might even get the card and letter together.” He said I could also call between 8-2pm to speak directly with the caseworker. But that we would get something very soon. 

Now I’m not holding my breath or anything, but at least that was the little bit of hope we needed. Plus the congressperson caseworker should be following up tomorrow so I’m hopeful we’ll get something soon. 

I have to say that working with the congressmans office and also with the people on the phone at USCIS have actually been pretty pleasant. Everyone has been genuinely helpful, even if the process is still slow....

thats all. So maybe for those of us that are waiting, the letter is just waiting to be sent out. Also, ours is at National Benefits Center. Not sure if that’s where everyone else’s are. 

Contacted my congress person, I hope it helps.  Our expedite is based on financial hardship as I'm not only supporting myself and my husband, but also my mom who can't work at the moment since she is going through her cancer treatments.  It's really getting hard financially and emotionally. Hoping and praying something will happen before the weekend (now I hate weekends because these are days where USCIS is not working, lol).  But I'm hopeful it will come very soon.  We decided we're throwing an EAD party when he gets it lol.

I must say, it's incredibly helpful to have these forums - the support and info is everything. So thanks for being your lovely selves everyone xoxoxo

@Aviinashh Quick question: when you made the request with Congress person, is it the USC who makes the request on behalf of their foreign spouse or should the foreign spouse make the request directly? 

and now I need to probe for more info. So first you filed the expedite request and then a few days later contacted your Congress person? Is that correct? I think I’m going to contact my Congress person today. I’m on day 120 something (lost count)....

24 minutes ago, Aviinashh said:

Update from Congressman's office

 

"""""Hey Aviinashh,

 

Great news! U.S.C.I.S. has agreed to expedite your EAD petition! This means you will receive a notice shortly on a decision. Once received, it usually takes the actual card 7-10 business days to be delivered. Some employers (I’m unsure about XXXXX) will accept the approval notice as proof of employability.

 

If you have any additional questions or concerns, or if you do not receive the card/decision in a timely manner, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Thanks!"""""

 

 

Well, waiting game continues...